studio album
An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records c ...
by American rock band
The Doobie Brothers
The Doobie Brothers are an American rock band formed in 1970 in San Jose, California, known for their flexibility in performing across numerous genres and their vocal harmonies. Active for five decades, with their greatest success in the 1970s, ...
, released on December 1, 1978, by Warner Bros. Records. It was their last album to include members
John Hartman
John Hartman (March 18, 1950 – September 22, 2022)Cycles'') and Jeff "Skunk" Baxter.
The album spent 87 weeks on the ''Billboard'' 200 chart. In the spring of 1979 ''Minute by Minute'' was the best-selling album in the U.S. for five non-consecutive weeks. It was certified 3×
Platinum
Platinum is a chemical element with the symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name originates from Spanish , a diminutive of "silver".
Pla ...
by the
RIAA
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/ ...
title track
A title track is a song that has the same name as the album or film in which it appears. In the Korean music industry, the term is used to describe a promoted song on an album, akin to a single, regardless of the song's title.
Title track may a ...
and "Depending on You" were also released as singles and reached the top 30.
''Minute by Minute'' made The Doobie Brothers one of the big winners at the
22nd Grammy Awards
The 22nd Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 27, 1980, at Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, and were broadcast live on American television. They recognized accomplishments by musicians from the year 1979. This year was notable for being the ...
. The album got the trophy for
Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group
The Grammy Award
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by ...
and received a nomination for Album of the Year; the single "What a Fool Believes" earned them three Grammys, including Song and
Record of the Year
The Grammy Award for Record of the Year is presented by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to "honor artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the recording industry, without reg ...
.
Track listing
Personnel
The Doobie Brothers
*
Patrick Simmons
Patrick Simmons (born October 19, 1948) is an American musician best known as a founding member of the rock band The Doobie Brothers. Born in Aberdeen, Washington, he has been the only consistent member of the band throughout their tenure. Simm ...
piano
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...
,
electric piano
An electric piano is a musical instrument which produces sounds when a performer presses the keys of a piano-style musical keyboard. Pressing keys causes mechanical hammers to strike metal strings, metal reeds or wire tines, leading to vibrations ...
,
organ
Organ may refer to:
Biology
* Organ (biology), a part of an organism
Musical instruments
* Organ (music), a family of keyboard musical instruments characterized by sustained tone
** Electronic organ, an electronic keyboard instrument
** Hammond ...
,
synthesizer
A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...
s, lead and backing vocals
* Jeff "Skunk" Baxter – lead and rhythm guitars
*
Tiran Porter
Tiran Calvin Porter (born September 26, 1948) is an American bass and guitar player, vocalist and composer, best known as a member of The Doobie Brothers from 1972 to 1980 and 1987 to 1992.
Biography
Porter graduated from Leuzinger High School in ...
–
bass
Bass or Basses may refer to:
Fish
* Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species
Music
* Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range:
** Bass (instrument), including:
** Acoustic bass gui ...
, backing vocals
*
John Hartman
John Hartman (March 18, 1950 – September 22, 2022)drums
A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair of matching drumsticks ...
,
percussion
A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...
*
Keith Knudsen
Keith A. Knudsen ( ; February 18, 1948 – February 8, 2005) was an American rock drummer, vocalist, and songwriter. Knudsen was best known as a drummer and vocalist for The Doobie Brothers. In addition, he founded the band Southern Pacific wit ...
– drums, percussion, backing vocals
Additional musicians
*
Ted Templeman
Edward John "Ted" Templeman (born October 24, 1942) is an American record producer. Among the acts he has a long relationship with are the rock bands Van Halen and the Doobie Brothers and the singer Van Morrison; he produced multiple critical ...
– drums (with Keith Knudsen) on "What a Fool Believes", additional percussion
*
Bobby LaKind
Robert Jay LaKind (November 3, 1945 – December 24, 1992) was an American conga player, vocalist, songwriter and occasional backup drummer with The Doobie Brothers. Originally a lighting roadie for the band, he was invited to join as a sideman ...
–
congas
The conga, also known as tumbadora, is a tall, narrow, single-headed drum from Cuba. Congas are staved like barrels and classified into three types: quinto (lead drum, highest), tres dos or tres golpes (middle), and tumba or salidor (lowest). ...
, backing vocals
* Tom Johnston – backing vocals on "Don't Stop to Watch the Wheels"
*
Nicolette Larson
Nicolette Larson (July 17, 1952 – December 16, 1997) was an American singer. She is perhaps best known for her work in the late 1970s with Neil Young and her 1978 hit single of Young's " Lotta Love", which hit No. 1 on the Hot Adult Cont ...
– duet vocals on "Sweet Feelin'", backing vocals on "Dependin' on You"
*
Rosemary Butler
Rosemary Ann Butler (born April 6, 1947) is an American singer. She began her career playing bass guitar and singing in an all-female band named the Ladybirds while attending Fullerton Union High School in Fullerton, California. The band appeared ...
– backing vocals on "Here to Love You" and "Dependin' on You"
* Norton Buffalo –
harmonica
The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica in ...
on "Don't Stop to Watch the Wheels" and "Steamer Lane Breakdown"
*
Herb Pedersen
Herbert Joseph Pedersen (born April 27, 1944 in Berkeley, California) is an American musician, guitarist, banjo player, and singer-songwriter who has played a variety of musical styles over the past fifty years including country, bluegrass, p ...
–
banjo
The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...
fiddle
A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including classical music. Although in many cases violins and fiddles are essentially synonymous, the ...
on "Steamer Lane Breakdown"
*
Lester Abrams
Lester Abrams (born 1945) is a singer, songwriter, musician and producer who has played with such artists as B.B. King, Stevie Wonder, Peabo Bryson, Quincy Jones, Manfred Mann, Brian Auger, The Average White Band, The Doobie Brothers, Rufus and m ...
–
electric piano
An electric piano is a musical instrument which produces sounds when a performer presses the keys of a piano-style musical keyboard. Pressing keys causes mechanical hammers to strike metal strings, metal reeds or wire tines, leading to vibrations ...
on "How Do the Fools Survive?"
*
Bill Payne
William H. Payne (born March 12, 1949) is an American pianist who, with Lowell George, co-founded the American rock band Little Feat. He is considered by many other rock pianists, including Elton John, to be one of the finest American piano roc ...
– synthesizer (with Michael McDonald) on "What a Fool Believes" and "Minute by Minute"
* Novi Novog – synthesizer solo on "Open Your Eyes"
*Sumner Mering – guitar on "Open Your Eyes"
* Andrew Love –
saxophone
The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of Single-reed instrument, single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed (mouthpi ...
on "Here to Love You", "Dependin' on You" and "How Do the Fools Survive?"
*
Ben Cauley
Ben S. Cauley, Jr. (October 3, 1947 – September 21, 2015) was an American trumpet player, vocalist, songwriter, and founding member of the Stax recording group the Bar-Kays. He was the only survivor of the 1967 plane crash that claimed the live ...
–
trumpet
The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...
on "Here to Love You", "Dependin' on You" and "How Do the Fools Survive?"
Production
*Producer –
Ted Templeman
Edward John "Ted" Templeman (born October 24, 1942) is an American record producer. Among the acts he has a long relationship with are the rock bands Van Halen and the Doobie Brothers and the singer Van Morrison; he produced multiple critical ...
Donn Landee
Donn Landee is an American record producer and recording engineer. Much of his work as an engineer has been done with producer Ted Templeman at Sunset Sound Recorders in Hollywood, Cal. The pair worked with a wide variety of artists for Warner ...
*Additional Engineer – Loyd Clifft
*Additional Engineer - Steve Malcolm
*Cover Design and Coordinator – Bruce Steinberg
*Photography – David Alexander
*Management – Bruce Cohn
Recorded at Warner Bros. Recording Studios,
North Hollywood
North Hollywood is a neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, located in the San Fernando Valley. The neighborhood contains the NoHo Arts District, the El Portal Theatre, several art galleries, and the Academy of TV Arts and Sciences. The North ...
;
Mixed at
Sunset Sound
Sunset, also known as sundown, is the daily disappearance of the Sun below the horizon due to Earth's rotation. As viewed from everywhere on Earth (except the North and South poles), the equinox Sun sets due west at the moment of both the sprin ...
,
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...